[stephenkhoo]

Friday, 10 February, 2012, 5th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle 2
THE SACRAMENTAL AND INCARNATIONAL WAY OF COMING TO FAITH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: 1 KG 11:29-32; 12:19; Mk 7:31-37
How do we help people to come to faith in God or to trust in us? This is the question that the scripture readings pose to us today. Life is so ironical. When it comes to human relationships, we want to be touched, to be spoken to kindly and gently and be acknowledged. We desire tangible signs of love and recognition, whether in words, gestures or token. But when it comes to relating with God, we think we are pure spirits and relate to God only using our spirit. The means we employ are mostly study, knowledge and understanding to encounter God. Faith is reduced to a cerebral knowledge of God; sometimes expressed in words, especially in set formulae given by the Church.

Yet what moves someone passionately in a relationship is not logic but the heart. Just using the head to love someone will result in a sterile relationship. It is a denial of the affective and feeling dimension of the human being. If many relationships, even marital relationships, have become superficial and empty, it is because couples love with their head but leave their hearts elsewhere. Some transfer their affection to children, animals or hobbies even! So long as the heart is not touched, the head alone cannot compel the body to move in tandem with it. Even if it were possible, it would have been done reluctantly and with great resistance. But when the heart is moved, even if the head cannot see the beauty, the will presents to the intellect the object as truth.

But how can the heart be moved if not through the body? Communication is very much through signs and symbols; concrete gestures and things, not merely through ideas. How one is touched has very much to do with the way we speak, the words and tone we use, our facial and body expressions and the things we do for them. Logic alone cannot change people’s lives. That is why the world today needs witnesses, not teachers. These are the means and even the pre-requisites to open the minds and hearts of our listeners. This explains why the Chinese place great emphasis in “guan xi”, translated as cultivating a personal relationship, in doing business. When there is trust and confidence, mutual understanding and knowledge, it will then be easier to negotiate a contract.

Indeed that was the way Jesus communicated the love of His Father to those whom He encountered. There were of course occasions when Jesus could even heal impersonally, as in the case of the woman with hemorrhage. But this was because the person already had faith in Him. In such instances where faith already is present, Jesus can heal even with His shadow, or through things that touched Him. We read that “wherever he went into villages, towns or countryside they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.” (Mark 6:56) Jesus also expected that those who believed in Him would duplicate His works of healing. Hence, we should not be surprised to read that “people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed.” (Acts 5:15-16) “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.” (Acts 19:11-12)

However, for those whose faith was weak or needed help to strengthen their faith, Jesus would approach them in a personal way, as in the case of the healing of the deaf man. Presumably, the deaf man was not able to hear what the Lord was preaching. This could have been the reason why Jesus employed the incarnational means of mediating the love of God to him. “He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man’s ears and touched his tongue with spittle. Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’” In truth, He could have healed him just by a word, as He did in many other cases of healing. If He had gone through such a roundabout manner, it was because Jesus wanted him to feel the touch of God, since he could not hear him. He wanted him to feel that he is loved and cared for.

Furthermore, since he had an impediment in his speech, Jesus was saving him from the embarrassment of the curious crowd. By taking him aside, Jesus demonstrated respect and sensitivity towards the man. It is like us going for a medical checkup. The doctors and nurses would always take care to protect our privacy so that we do not feel violated or embarrassed. It was such keen sensitivity to the person’s needs that made it easier for him to come to faith and receive the healing grace of God.

The need to use signs and gestures to drive home a message is one of the means employed by the prophets in the Old Testament, which is a dramatic way of reinforcing the message of the Lord. The prophet would perform an action which illustrates vividly and dramatically the message from the Lord. In the case of the prophet Ahijah, he met Jeroboam along the road and tearing his new cloak to twelve strips, he gave Jeroboam ten of them as a symbol that God would divide the kingdom of David into two parts. Only Judah would remain under the descendants of King David and the other ten tribes would form Israel. Consequently, the tearing of the cloak was no more than just an empty sign, but it brings about the effects it symbolizes. Isn’t this what we do to demonstrate the seriousness of our intent, like in public demonstrations when we wield a sword or a chopper in anger; or burning the effigies of those people we do not like?

Accordingly we must reflect how we help people to encounter God, whether in catechesis, worship, liturgical or devotional, and in our acts of love. What causes people to be deaf to God? Why are many Catholics saying to us that they cannot feel the presence of God in their lives even at liturgical celebrations and worship? Why are many young people saying that God is dead? Many have stopped going to Church because they cannot experience the presence of God. The real cause is because we have lost the sense of mystery in the Church. We have reduced faith and sometimes even our liturgy to a pure cerebral communication with God or some rituals that are not connected with people’s lives. We have the right formulae according to the doctrines of faith, even right rubrics as well, and profound exposition of the scriptures, yet our listeners are not touched and moved. Why?

We fail to realize that human beings need to encounter God through the incarnational way, which is the reason for the Word to assume flesh in Jesus. It is through edifying music, words, sacramentals, actions and gestures, signs and symbols that the liturgy becomes alive. When faith is mere intellectualism, they might feel enriched in their head but their hearts are impoverished and hungry for the touch of God. Preaching and knowledge of God are important, but they are only means to open the heart to God. That is why preaching and catechesis must be expressed in meaningful liturgical celebrations where words, signs and gestures are used to mediate the presence of God.

Another fundamental reason why people are unable to experience the presence of God is because of the lack of real Christian fellowship, especially the practice of fraternal love and compassion. The Church lacks warmth, hospitality, tolerance and inclusivity. There are some sectors in the Church that seek to impose their brand of theology and spirituality on others. When people see the Church as arrogant, intolerant and uncaring, it is difficult to believe in the compassion and love of the Good Shepherd who seek out every lost sheep and wounded soul, embracing us where we are so that we can be where we should be.

Today we must learn from Jesus’ approach to helping people to come to faith. The people said of Him, “He has done all things well…he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.” It must be an integral approach, since faith involves the whole person, intellect, will and body. Unless our potential believers hear preaching that is connected with their life struggles and the realities of life, giving them hope; and unless they can experience and feel His love through fervent worship; and unless they can see that this love of God is expressed in inter-personal relationship, in love, compassion and tolerance, they will remain deaf to the voice of God. They cannot hear the gospel, not because of any impediment of their ears, and they cannot worship God from their hearts, not because of any impediment in their speech, but because the heart is locked and numbed to His love. The real barrier is an emotional and psychological block! The Psalmist says, “I am the Lord, your God: hear my voice.” Perhaps, we speak so loudly that we they cannot hear us!